On May 15th, Luo Shugang, China’s minister of Culture and Tourism, met with foreign guests of the parallel forum on culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges including Phinij Jarusombat, head of Thai-Chinese Cultural and Relationship Council, Thong Khon, Cambodia's Tourism Minister and Aminuddin Ihsan Abidin, Brunei minister of Culture, Youth and Sports.
“Both China and Thailand have marched into a new era with frequent high-level interactions between two sides and solid foundation and broad platform for cultural and tourism exchanges,” Luo said to Phinij Jarusombat, head of the Thai-Chinese Cultural and Relationship Council. “We are willing to work jointly with Thailand to give full play to the role of cultural and tourism exchanges in enhancing mutual trust and removing doubts, and cement the social base of China-Thailand friendly ties” he added. Phinij Jarusombat congratulated on the successful holding of the Conference on Dialogues of Asian Civilizations and he fully agreed upon Luo’s advice. He will join hands with China to commit efforts to bring two peoples even closer together.
During his talk with Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon, Luo exchanged views on China-Cambodia tourism cooperation as well as the major projects of 2019 China-Cambodia culture and tourism year. He stressed the importance of tourism communication and cooperation in the Sino-Cambodian strategic partnership. China is willing to work closely with Cambodia to expand the scale of mutual visits. Thong Khon, who extended his thanks to be invited to attend the Conference on Dialogues of Asian Civilizations, expressed that he will work closely with China to develop a satisfying China-Cambodian culture and tourism year and make contributions to a sound development of Cambodia-China cultural and tourism ties.
When meeting with Aminuddin Ihsan Abidin, Luo described China and Brunei as "friendly neighbors across the sea”. Two countries have had fruitful interaction and cooperation in cultural fields. In April this year, President Xi Jinping and his Brunei counterpart Hassanal Bolkiah jointly announced the year of 2020 as China-Brunei tourism year. It is hoped that both sides should implement the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and promote exchanges and cooperation in culture and tourism. Aminuddin is looking forward to start a new chapter for cultural and tourism cooperation between two sides through joint efforts and practical cooperation.